Peripherals

Sandra's Epson Expression printer has "squiggly lines" when she prints. Leo says that means the printer head needs to be replaced and frankly, it's cheaper to just buy a new printer. But if it's brand new, then she should take it back. She can try cleaning the heads with the software utility first, as well as the alignment routine. But if she's done all that, then Leo recommends taking it back.

Bill got the Motorola Moto-X, and he wants to know if he can use his good Sennheiser headphones with it. Leo says it should work. The headphones he's using will have three black rings on the tip, and it should work when plugged into the headphone jack of the Moto X. If the mic doesn't work, then that means it can't support the inline mic of the headphones.

Leo uses the Etymotics HF3, which are very high end. But there's lower end models that work great too.

Kevin has a hard drive that hasn't been working right, so he used SpinRite and now he's getting an error called "overflow error." Leo suggests getting a NewerTek USB universal drive interface and connecting the drive to another computer. This will allow him to get all the data off it without having to deal with booting it up through the computer. It'll just be treated as a data drive. It will also tell him whether the drive can be read or not. If so, then it's likely a bad file.

Mario downloads music and he wants to know if he'll get sued or arrested for it. Leo says that when he's sharing or downloading, law enforcement doesn't know who he actually is because it's all based on IP addresses. Both the recording industry (RIAA) and the movie industry (MPAA) often have phoney torrents in order to find out what IP addresses are downloading them. Then they have to find out who owns that IP address from the ISP.

Jeanette's son's computer was hacked and she's concerned that her Mac computers will be infected if he connects it to her network. Leo says that she should go into the security system preferences and turn on the computer firewall. That will protect her individual computers inside her network. What about her iPad? Leo says that she doesn't really have to worry about the tablet getting infected. Nobody is writing viruses that can infect an iPad from a Windows PC.

Michael wants to back up all his images onto CDs for safe keeping. He used to use Nero, but it doesn't work on Windows 7. Leo says that Windows may be able to burn it natively. He'll want to format the CD and then drag the files onto it. Then he can select "burn," and it'll be done. Leo says he doesn't put stuff on CDs anymore, he uses the Cloud instead. And with Flickr by Yahoo offering 1TB of free image storage, it's a good option. Also, just having one backup isn't really a backup. Backing up to the cloud is a wise idea.

Stacey bought a Microsoft Surface tablet and really likes it. He's wondering if it's ok to use it with a traditional mouse and keyboard as opposed to using the touch screen, though. Leo says since it's his personal computer, he should be able to use it however he wants! There is no incorrect way to use it.

Leo says that the Pebble Steel is pretty slick. It looks like a watch and works with Android. The Galaxy Gear watch only works with the Note III. Sam should keep in mind that the Pebble can't work as a headset. He can't talk on it, it only would let him know the phone is ringing.